Connecticut lost 1,200 jobs in July, jobless rate unchanged

HARTFORD - Preliminary figures show Connecticut lost 1,200 net jobs in July, but a state labor official says job growth still remains strong.

Andy Condon, director of the Department of Labor's Office of Research, said Thursday the decline “does not materially affect the growth we have seen to date.” He said the state's three-month average job growth “remains strongly positive.”

The Department of Labor's monthly employment report shows Connecticut's July unemployment remains unchanged from June, at 4.4 percent, seasonally adjusted. It was 4.6 percent a year ago. Nationally, the U.S. jobless rate in July was 3.9 percent.

Connecticut has now recovered 86.1 percent, or 102,600 of the 119,100 jobs lost in the 2008-2010 recession.